Cooking on the Egglet

After hundreds of cooks on an XL, the medium just looks soooo small. Ironically, after being somewhat ridiculed by my teenage daughter (and to a lesser extent my wife) for buying another grill, my daughter decided the medium was cute and little. She then claimed it as her grill. Being cute and little, it shall be henceforth known as the "Egglet."

The egglet got its first usage yesterday. My prior attempt to use it was nixed because my daughter had too much homework and usage would have violated her rule that she got to do the first cook on it. The delay was a small price to pay to get her interested in charcoal BBQ'ing rather than wanting to use the gasser. It was a simple cook, just hot dogs and sausages. Going from the XL to the medium was like jumping from our mommyvan into my vette. It's small and fast.

I partially filled it with lump and then dumped a chimney load of hot coals in it. Closed the lid and I was getting ready to walk away and give it 10 minutes to warm up when I looked and noticed how fast the temp gauge was starting to move. Within two minutes, we were adjusting the bottom gate and had put the DW on. I overshot my target of 350* and hit 400*, but it settled in around 380*. After giving it a few minutes to burn off any VOCs, we were cooking. The fire really responded quickly to the lid being opened, much faster than I've noticed in my XL at a similar temp, prompting a lesson in burping the egg to my daughter. At the end of the cook, we wanted to brown the sausages a bit more and opened the bottom vent to around 1/2 and removed the DW. The temp gauge climbed from just over 400* to 550* in about 1 minute. Browning complete in 90 seconds from vent opening.

My daughter was happy to have used the egglet and said her hot dog tasted better since she cooked it. I can see using the medium more frequently than planned. I really liked how little time it took from lighting the coals to being ready to cook. While the medium feels a mini-egg for now, I can better see the appeal of using a real mini now.

Sorry no pics. I had enough going on working with my new cook and the new grill to mess around with photos.

Cooking on an XL and Medium in Bethesda, MD.

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Comments

My mini is my when 'alone' workhorse. From lighting to eating is less than 30 minutes for steaks, burgers, corn, potatoes,fruits etc.It heats quickly and uses so much less lump because of its size. Only use the medium for larger , longer cooks and company.